Posts Tagged ‘Slovenia’

This project involves the renovation of three Baroque block houses with an enclosed internal court in the old city center next to the City Hall, opposite the Robba Fountain and close to Plecnik’s three bridges.

Existing condition: All three courtside block are owned by Publishing Company. The ground floor is used as bookshop and the spaces above on the first floor were used for offices and last adapted in the early eighties. The internal court was rebuilt as a closed, semi glazed service space used for the building’s main air conditioning devices.

Residential complex Vrunčeva introduces a new typology of the city block unit. The modification of the block unit as laid out by the zoning legislation is the result of finding a direct answer to the spatial challenges of the site and ensuring high-quality habitation combined with excellent flexibility and energy efficiency for the building. The building is designed as a kind of hybrid of the classical block unit development and terraced structures characteristic of more open, suburban spaces.

The project is located in the Slovenian alpine town Kranjska Gora on the north western corner of the country. The brief required a public ground floor and small apartments on the upper floor that could be converted into bigger units.

Concept design-initial urban cube-cutout the cube in vertical and horizontal planes
The concept design was initially dictated by strict local building regulations, height and footprint plot limit which partially led to the building form. The first step was pasting maximum volume on the site -a cube on the allowed urban footprint. The final form derived from cutting the cube in the vertical and horizontal planes.

Apartment buildings are located in a redeveloped downtown area that has recently been converted from derelict industrial to public and residential use. Despite its central position in the city, the site is removed from main roads and downtown bustle. Next to the new music school on the north of the city block, three apartment buildings rise from a green surface. Their positions reflect the heterogeneous surroundings; variety of directions influences the varying orientations of the volumes. As there are no parallel facades, each apartment can establish an individual character without obstruction.

The pool and spa complex is connected to the existing hotel via a communication axis comprising various public spaces, which leads along the new pools to the future hotel at the west edge of the site. On the south of the axis, the swimming pool hall contains indoor pools and adjoining saunas, the outdoor pools with the restaurant are located on the north side. Upper floor houses various healthcare and wellness programs.

Location: The building stands on the corner of the most frequented intersection in the city.
Urban context: Impact of heavy traffic, diversity of physical space.

Program: Visible part, housing offices and retail space, represents only a third of the entire structure. Below ground, three more levels accommodate parking and additional programs for the adjacent hotel.

Scheme: Protective against the impact of the intersection, the building is oriented within where, together with adjacent buildings, it forms an open atrium, a nucleus of public activities.

The parking garage is located at the University Medical Centre in Ljubljana. The project was commissioned by a company that builds residential and commercial buildings in Slovenia and prepares sites for the Hofer commercial network. A condition of the investor was that a classic HOFER supermarket had to be located on the ground floor in the standard form and dimensions of Hofer shops throughout Europe. The task was a very difficult one for designers, since the structural grid used in HOFER shops do not correspond to the grid required for the rational design of a parking garage.

The Police Dog Training Facility comprises three zones: the first is approach zone with parking spaces and area entrances; the second zone, principal building, serves as a translator between various public and private regions; the third zone comprises dog habitats, charged with noise and dog activity. Principal building houses rooms for dog guides, trainers and trainees, all of them oriented to the public, quiet side.

Following the Competition at the end of 2006, the investor MABRA engineering entrusted the author of the winning elaborate, Lečnik Darko, with the planning of the project, who, along with his team APLAN d.o.o. and colleague Rafael Draksler with the team ARHITEKA d.o.o., began drawing up projects for the business and residential facility DUNAJSKI KRISTALI.

Project: Renovation of the Delavski dom landmark building, preserving the urban dominant feature at the entrance to the city centre. The 1938 addition to the original structure is replaced by a new structure, following existing elevation line. Structuring of volumes on the southern edge paraphrases the urban pattern of surrounding villas.